Watching the Plains Roll By

By the time you get to the airport, wait around for a while, catch the flight, get off the plane, and make it home, you’ve likely already burned two and a half hours. Add the hour-long flight itself, and travel time becomes a major factor when weighing up flying versus taking the train to Wagga.

The other thing I considered was cost. I could get a train ticket for considerably less than a flight between Sydney and Wagga, so I chose the rails, especially since time wasn’t really of the essence. I was also keen to take my mobility scooter, which is much easier to manage on a train.

I was honestly surprised there weren’t more mobility scooters on board, as I was probably one of the youngest people on the train when I came down on Thursday. I booked a first-class ticket and I’m pretty sure I was one of only a handful of people paying full price; most of the passengers were enjoying the $2.50 regional excursion daily fare that senior citizens are eligible for in NSW.

There was definitely an old-world feel to the trip. The attendant described the journey as “heritage”—a polite way of saying the XPT train, which had no power points or USB ports, was still in its original 1982 state. It probably didn’t matter all that much, as there were large swathes of the trip where you were completely out of mobile range anyway. So, I used the time to sleep, read, and listen to music.

I also had lunch, which managed to be both wonderful and awful. The wonderful bit was that because the vast majority of the passengers were older, the lovely attendants offered to go back and forth to the buffet car to help out. I gave my card to an attendant who went up to tap and pay for me and grab my meal. As an amputee, walking back and forth against the rock-and-roll of the moving train is difficult, so this was an absolute lifesaver.

The meal itself, however, was pretty average. How do you heat up spaghetti bolognese so badly? You know when you buy frozen pasta and some parts cook, but other bits stay hard like they’re straight out of the packet? Well, that’s what happened. On the bright side, the wine came in a glass that closely resembled the old Vegemite jars of my youth that were converted into tumblers, which was a nostalgic novelty.

The service on the train heading back was just as terrific. One of the attendants was particularly helpful with my scooter, moving my seat closer and giving me two seats instead of one. This meant I could stretch out more comfortably and have a proper sleep.

In between naps, I was able to look out the window at the changing geography as the train crossed the Great Dividing Range and rolled out into the Riverina plains. You could easily spot the difference between the more fertile, green patches and the areas where it’s been a while since they’ve seen a drop of rain.

As the journey went on, I felt a bit inspired and started wondering about the logistics of catching the train all the way between Melbourne and Sydney. Much like I would with a long-haul flight, I concluded I’d likely break the trip up, stopping off for a few days in Wagga and Albury along the way.

Unlike the grueling long-haul train and bus trips of my youth, where cost and raw convenience were the only things that mattered, I thought this could actually be a nice, leisurely way to travel instead of the usual rushed flight. Maybe something for next time?